By now, you’ve probably at least read a tweet somewhere about Matt Damon’s surprise cameo as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during the cold open for the Saturday Night Live premiere this weekend. Despite the actor’s own troublesome public comments about the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, his turn as the angry would-be Supreme Court justice was one of the better moments from an otherwise typical evening of late night comedy and variety from the NBC staple. But how did it come together?
According to Vulture, “a source close to the show” revealed that co-head writer and co-host of “Weekend Update,” Colin Jost, initially had the idea to cast Damon as Kavanaugh for the cold open. The thing is, he apparently didn’t have the idea until the eleventh hour, as the SNL team only ran the idea by the actor “sometime after midnight on Friday night.” Thankfully for them, Damon agreed to do it and subsequently flew across the country, from California to New York, for what was ultimately a 13-minute sketch.
Vulture’s source also indicated that Damon didn’t arrive at the 30 Rock Studio until around 4 p.m. ET, meaning that he only had around eight hours to craft and rehearse the part with Jost, fellow co-head writers Michael Che and Kent Sublette, and the rest of the SNL staff involved in making the cold open a reality. As much of a close call is this was, however, I’m sure everyone who participated was, like Damon’s Kavanaugh, a “keg is half-full” kind of group.
(Via Vulture)
